Excellent view of history during the life of Jesus. Seems that politics has not changed much since then. The book paints a picture of what it was like to live during those times. Not a religious text, but more historical, you will learn things about Jesus and the familiar names you have heard mentioned all your life. This book filled in the blanks for me. I highly recommend it.

Richard R - Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (10.1-Inch, Wi-Fi)

This is NOT a rehash of the technical specs of the tablet.I received my Samsung Galaxy Tablet and a few moments later, I was up and running.I did the brief setup, signed in with my Gmail account and my existing account including calendar, applications were transferred to my new Tablet. Some applications which I favor on my Samsung Droid phone did not transfer as they are currently not compatible with the Tablet (Example CamScanner and others). Note that "Amazon Prime Instant Video" content is not currently supported on this Tablet. However, Netflix is supported.I removed the factory default home screen widgets (Game Hub, Movie Hub) as these are not important to me and replaced the home screen with application shortcuts, widgets and desktop background of my choice.The Tablet is a great "convenience" bridge between my laptop and Samsung Droid phone. For some applications, I prefer using the Tablet's larger screen rather than using the phone.The HD display is stunningly crisp and clear for watching movies or for reading books. Netflix streams flawlessly on the Tablet and the picture quality is ...stunning. The virtual keyboard is very precise and responsive even though I have the Otterbox screen protector over the screen.The built in camera is unimpressive in picture quality but I did not purchase the Tablet to be a camera. I have Nikon Pro DSLRs for that purpose.I did find that file transfer to the external microSD card was painfully slow but solved that issue by removing the card from the Tablet and doing my file transfers to the card while it is in a card reader instead. (32GB Class 10 microSD).Overall, I love the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 considering the price point of the product. It it simply a great product.Update: June 28... I had a chance to listen to music using a decent set of earphones and using "PowerAmp" Application as the media player.1. The sound quality is unbelievably awesome even with the equalization set to "flat" in PowerAmp.2. I had a Logitech "Write-Away Bluetooth Tablet Keyboard Lite for iPad" hanging around and decided to test it on the Galaxy. It paired and works well on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1!3. In addition to the native web browser, Google Chrome and Firefox work smoothly and responsively on the Tablet.

John Gibbons - Rings true.

Although I am no scholar I have had a life long interest in Yeshua aka Jesus. I was baptised a Christian but never thought of myself as one nor have I ever believed the bible to be the "word of God". Just did not make sense to me. However, Yeshua/Jesus, the man, fascinated me. What he had to say about the power of faith always rang true even though I did not accept the ancient Jewish traditions concerning God nor the edited versions appearing in the New Testament and the religion built upon it. As a psychologist I have had great respect for the power of faith and always held the placebo response in high regard. Repeating the words of Gulley Foyle, a character from a science fiction novel I read in the late 1950s, I have "faith in faith".

I also liked the way he rebelled against the political and religious hierarchies of his time.

After reading shelves of books about the historical Jesus I finally found one that makes sense to me, fills a lot of gaps, puts Yeshua into his own time, religious beliefs and customs amid the religious and political self interest and forces of the era. Well done Reza Aslan.

Barrett F. Johnson - Outstanding Phone, Camera and OS - not small though

I went with WP8 and the Nokia 920 after having iPhones 3 and 4. I like the current universal Windows interface Microsoft is adopting across devices. The WP8 OS is still a bit rough in places - in the same way that the iPhone didn't start out with having any sort of folder/group concept for organizing apps.

The phone is a great phone - I agree with the other reviewers about call quality, etc. I use it with a Bluetooth headset and I can say that this is the first phone/headset combo that has been consistently satisfactory for both myself and those with whom I'm speaking. (The headset is the LG HBS-730 - I would give it 5 stars as well.)

The one complaint I have about the phone is that it doesn't seem to support standard pause/wait codes when dialing (so you can't program in a complete string of digits to connect you to a conference call). I am sure they will get there, the iphone didn't have it when I switched over from my blackberry, and it irritated me then too.

Returning to the phone - beyond it being a solid phone the notable pros for me:

1) Great camera - they need to smooth out the way plug-in "lenses" are handled, but in general it takes very high quality photos. I can only imagine what the 1020 will do, but I am not a huge photo guy, for me it is a suitable replacement for a dedicated digital camera other than its lack of true zoom.

2) Well-integrated with Microsoft everything - I use Outlook & Exchange for email, contacts, etc; I use Skydrive for document storage; I have an Xbox; I use Office for productivity apps. The phone is a very good extension of all of those systems. It all just works.

3) Windows Phone 8 OS - this is somewhat part of #2, but I really do like the OS overall. As mentioned, it does need a few additions.

4) Bing integration - the Bing search integration is great. You can Bing translate trivially with the camera, the basic Bing search also has Shazam-like song detection right there (no need for another app) and likewise handles QR and barcodes automatically.

5) Built-in inductive charging. Plugging in a phone is sort of a bother. I have an inductive charging stand on my desk. Makes it easier to keep the phone charged, which is good, because if you want to run a screen this size at high brightness (which is perfectly readable in even the brightest sunlight), it does kind of chew through the battery.

There is also no real need to ever plug the phone in for synching - I have found everything can be done wirelessly.

6) The screen - easy to take for granted now that I've had it a while, but it is very good, and being in Minnesota, I know I will appreciate the ability to use the touchscreen with gloves.

About the apps - yes, it will ne nice to see the app ecosystem grow, but in the same way that megapixel don't tell the whole story of the camera, I don't think app counts alone tell the story. One thing is that as mentioned earlier, some apps are made unnecessary by built-in functionality; make sure you look at the built-in functionality first before you clutter up your phone with an unneeded app.

There are admittedly some notable missing items write now, but with the exception of Amazon Cloud Player most of what I personally use is available on the phone. I am a 40-something tech/business guy I'm not doing anything with (e.g.) Instagram. The Flickr app works fine although hasn't been updated to the WP8 UI look and feel. When I flip through the apps on my last iPhone and consider whether the functionality is covered between with the OS or available apps, I am fairly happy. There's a Delta app, LastPass, Evernote (although I use OneNote more than Evernote), Fandango. My main financial institution has a solid app for it. And obviously I didn't need to buy a special app to view Office documents.

While I am not a big social network person at all, the way they have integrated LinkedIn and Facebook is quite nice.

I could go on, but in general this has been a great phone for me. It is good-sized though. When I pick up an iphone now it feels tiny - and almost dainty. The 920 does have a very solid feel to it, and although it has had a couple of drops, the case and screen are completely unblemished after two or three months of use now.

Alamo Sam - Utterly unique...

Rush is a strange phenomenon...and has been for decades. Whether you love or hate their music you can respect the band members as utterly talented instrumentalists who (publicly) mock themselves. Prog rock is always criticized as being "pretentious" but Rush turns that characterization on its head. They perform dazzling music while appearing to enjoy and laugh at it. Name me another band that is similar...

The audience likely isn't quite aware of the skill required to perform at the level they do. To bake in the added humor only demonstrates more-so the fact that Geddy, Alex, and Neil are very humble folk with very uncommon talent.

At nearly 60 years-old these guys energetically outperform their grand-kids.

Live in Cleveland is a lesson in youth/aging we can all learn from. Remarkable.